Robredo can’t help Roxas – analyst

Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo will not boost the candidacy of Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd even if she is popular among voters, a political analyst said on Sunday.

Prof. Ramon Casiple, Executive Director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform (IPER), said the Liberal Party (LP) will not have a difficult time projecting Robredo but the latter will not be able to pull votes for Roxas.

Casiple noted that Robredo has a good chance of winning the vice presidential contest but her magic will not rub off on Roxas.

“Tandem does not work anymore because voters make their choice based on personality, not based on the political party. This is because of our weak party system,” Casiple told The Manila Times in an interview.

The political analyst said Robredo can get huge support from vote-rich Bicol Region but she cannot transfer it to Roxas.

“If the LP expects Leni will be a big help for Mar to win the contest, they should forget it,” he added.

Casiple said Robredo only needs an effective campaign so that voters in other regions will get to know her and the LP has the machinery to do that.

He added that Robredo will be a strong candidate for vice president because of her strong background.

She will have a tough time, however, if she will have a strong rival, Casiple said.

At present, only Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th has declared his intention to run for vice president with or without the support of the Nacionalista Party.

Senator Francis Escudero is also eyeing the post but has not yet made a declaration.

He is reportedly planning to be the running mate of Sen. Grace Poe.

Vice President Jejomar Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance is also still searching for a running mate.

Mar Roxas is bad product to sell. Having a popular VP candidate is not solution for Mar Roxas. It could probably be better if Mar start hitting Pnoy. At this point there is no way that Mar Roxas can catch with VP Binay. Even our weather does not even want to cooperate with Mar, this long dry spell will definetely takes it toll on rice production and it will blame on Pnoy. Even the gas prices going down can not be claimed as an achievement because more OFW will sent home soon since the Middle East oil producing countries can no longer sustain our workers. This will be even worst than 10 Yolanda type typhoon hitting us successively. It could even trigger a glut in the condo market when our OFW will be out of work.

This must be a very negative belief, but being the administrastions’s candidate, no one, and no one, can help candidate Roxas. Despite the fact that he held a premier cabinet post under Pres BS Aquino III, he has not shown any remarkable achievement under a ‘mediocre’ blame-pointing adminstration and full of hubris.